Lynn FD surpasses goal in smoke alarm campaign

LYNN – Lynn has become a whole lot safer since nearly 1,700 families participated in the Lynn Fire Department’s free smoke alarm installation campaign.”During the installation process, the fire department found that many people did not have smoke alarms at all, many smoke alarms were not operational, and some smoke alarms were found to be over 40 years old,” said Fire Chief James McDonald. “Having working smoke alarms doubles your chances of survival when a fire occurs.”The program, funded by a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, paid for about 5,000 smoke alarms installed in homes across the city that bring what Lt. Israel Gonzalez called long-term, life-saving implications.State law requires every home to have working smoke alarms. Gonzalez said smoke alarms generally have a 10-year life span and cannot be counted on to work when needed after that, therefore they should be replaced.The Fire Department saw some immediate benefits to the fruits of their labor when shortly after firefighters installed a smoke alarm in one home, a resident was awakened when it when it went off and escaped a home fire.During a separate installation process, firefighters headed into a multi-family to put in new alarms and found a smoldering mattress leaning against a bulb in a hallway. Crisis was averted.”Our residents are safer from fire today than they were just one year ago,” said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy. “Nearly 2,000 families are now protected by working smoke alarms.”Gonzalez said the goal was to install the fire alarms in at least 1,000 homes, but they surpassed that by nearly 20 percent.”This is the end result of a great program,” he said.Hanging smoke detectors isn’t all the prevention the department has been handling, however. Gonzalez said they have also focused on educating the public in regards to carbon monoxide alarms, kitchen fire safety, space heater safety and proper disposal of cigarettes. All throughout the year, the Fire Prevention Unit has met with community groups, from school-aged children to seniors, spreading these messages across our city’s multi-lingual population, Gonzalez said.”We believe this campaign has reached more of our city’s residents than ever before,” McDonald said.And it’s about to meet more.Later this month a billboard campaign will go up developed from posters designed by school children. Gonzalez said students from all over the city, elementary through high school, were invited to design a fire prevention poster, and three students will have their poster placed on a billboard for all to see.”Over 4,000 entries were submitted from the Lynn Public Schools and private schools in this community,” Gonzalez said. “The number of children who participated in this project surpassed our expectations.”In addition to the smoke alarm installations, the project included a multi-lingual media campaign also using billboards as well as TV, Internet and community outreach programs.Gonzalez called the entire campaign a lot of work “but it’s such a great accomplishment.”